@conference {4188, title = {Data for free: Fewer-shot algorithm learning with parametricity data augmentation}, booktitle = {ICLR 2019}, year = {2019}, month = {04/2019}, abstract = {

We address the problem of teaching an RNN to approximate list-processing algorithms given a small number of input-output training examples. Our approach is to generalize the idea of parametricity from programming language theory to formulate a semantic property that distinguishes common algorithms from arbitrary non-algorithmic functions. This characterization leads naturally to a learned data augmentation scheme that encourages RNNs to learn algorithmic behavior and enables small-sample learning in a variety of list-processing tasks.

}, author = {Owen Lewis and Katherine Hermann} } @article {2765, title = {Mechanisms of color perception and cognition covered by$\#$ thedress}, volume = {16}, year = {2016}, month = {8/2016}, pages = {746-746}, address = {Journal of Vision}, abstract = {

Color is notoriously ambiguousmany color illusions existbut until now it has been thought that all people with normal color vision experience color illusions the same way. How does the visual system resolve color ambiguity? Here, we present work that addresses this question by quantifying peoples perception of a particularly ambiguous image, the dress photograph. The colors of the individual pixels in the photograph when viewed in isolation are light-blue or brown, but popular accounts suggest the dress appears either white/gold or blue/black. We tested more than 1400 people, both on-line and under controlled laboratory conditions. Subjects first completed the sentence: this is a ___and___dress. Then they performed a color-matching experiment that did not depend on language. Surprisingly, the results uncovered three groups of subjects: white/gold observers, blue/black observers and blue/brown observers. Our findings show that the brain resolves ambiguity in the dress into one of three stable states\; a minority of people switched which colors they saw (~11\%). It is clear that what we see depends on both retinal stimulation and internal knowledge about the world. Cases of multi-stability such as the dress provide a rare opportunity to investigate this interplay. In particular, we go on to demonstrate that the dress photograph can be used as a tool to discover that skin reflectance is a particularly important implicit cue used by the brain to estimate the color of the light source, to resolve color ambiguity, shedding light on the role of high-level cues in color perception.

}, doi = {10.1167/16.12.746}, author = {B. R. Conway and Rosa Lafer-Sousa and Katherine Hermann} } @article {2789, title = {Mechanisms of color perception and cognition covered by $\#$thedress}, volume = {16}, year = {2016}, month = {9/2016}, pages = {746}, type = {Conference Talk}, abstract = {

Color is notoriously ambiguousmany color illusions existbut until now it has been thought that all people with normal color vision experience color illusions the same way. How does the visual system resolve color ambiguity? Here, we present work that addresses this question by quantifying peoples perception of a particularly ambiguous image, the dress photograph. The colors of the individual pixels in the photograph when viewed in isolation are light-blue or brown, but popular accounts suggest the dress appears either white/gold or blue/black. We tested more than 1400 people, both on-line and under controlled laboratory conditions. Subjects first completed the sentence: this is a ___and___dress. Then they performed a color-matching experiment that did not depend on language. Surprisingly, the results uncovered three groups of subjects: white/gold observers, blue/black observers and blue/brown observers. Our findings show that the brain resolves ambiguity in the dress into one of three stable states\; a minority of people switched which colors they saw (~11\%). It is clear that what we see depends on both retinal stimulation and internal knowledge about the world. Cases of multi-stability such as the dress provide a rare opportunity to investigate this interplay. In particular, we go on to demonstrate that the dress photograph can be used as a tool to discover that skin reflectance is a particularly important implicit cue used by the brain to estimate the color of the light source, to resolve color ambiguity, shedding light on the role of high-level cues in color perception.

}, author = {B. R. Conway and R. Lafer-Sousa and Katherine Hermann} } @article {2198, title = {Neural Representations Integrate the Current Field of View with the Remembered 360{\textdegree} Panorama}, journal = {Current Biology}, year = {2016}, month = {09/08/2016}, abstract = {

We experience our visual environment as a seamless, immersive panorama. Yet, each view is discrete and fleeting, separated by expansive eye movements and discontinuous views of our spatial surroundings. How are discrete views of a panoramic environment knit together into a broad, unified memory representation? Regions of the brain{\textquoteright}s {\textquotedblleft}scene network{\textquotedblright} are well poised to integrate retinal input and memory [ 1 ]: they are visually driven [ 2, 3 ] but also densely interconnected with memory structures in the medial temporal lobe [ 4 ]. Further, these regions harbor memory signals relevant for navigation [ 5{\textendash}8 ] and adapt across overlapping shifts in scene viewpoint [ 9, 10 ]. However, it is unknown whether regions of the scene network support visual memory for the panoramic environment outside of the current field of view and, further, how memory for the surrounding environment influences ongoing perception. Here, we demonstrate that specific regions of the scene network{\textemdash}the retrosplenial complex (RSC) and occipital place area (OPA){\textemdash}unite discrete views of a\ 360{\textdegree} panoramic environment, both current and out of sight, in a common representational space. Further, individual scene views prime associated representations of the panoramic environment in behavior, facilitating subsequent perceptual judgments. We propose that this dynamic interplay between memory and perception plays an important role in weaving the fabric of continuous visual experience.

}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.002}, url = {http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(16)30753-9}, author = {Robertson, Caroline~E. and Katherine Hermann and Mynick, Anna and Kravitz, Dwight~J. and Nancy Kanwisher} }